Any ideas for creating a pre-pack staging location in advanced warehouse?

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Posted on by Jason1

Hello Everyone,

We are setting up advanced warehouse pick & pack processes and would like to setup a staging location for all picked shipments to be “Put” while they await containerization. Based on order volume, size, priority, etc., the warehouse staff will have the flexibility to decide how to organize the picks. As such they will be picking a combination of single shipments one at a time and manually created clustered shipments using Cluster pick create. The idea is to have all of these picked orders go directly to a staging area where the Packers can later retrieve them in any order they choose, “Move” them to their packing station (PACK-01, PACK-02, PACK-03, etc..) and begin the containerization process. I set up a “PACK-STAGE” location where all SO pick work will be put to. Note that the system requires that all SO pick work must be put to a packing station or a final shipping destination (Baydoor) so the PACK-STAGE is technically setup as a packing station “type” location. The problem is that once you “Move” the picked shipment LP to another packing station, it is still not visible in the D365 Packing station screen when you enter the Shipment ID or LP for the new location (even though “On hand by location” shows the inventory there) so you can’t pack it? If you “Move” it back it is visible at the original packing station again and can be packed there – and only there. Is it not possible to move shipments between packing stations or am I going about it wrong? If not, any other ideas for accomplishing a process where we can stage picked shipments as initially described?

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks,

Jason

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Alina Lica on at

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Hi Jason,

What about using the new feature Outbound sorting ?

See the following links:

docs.microsoft.com/.../outbound-sorting

community.dynamics.com/.../outbound-sorting-pallet-building

Thank you,

Alina

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Jason1 75 on at

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Hi Alina,

Thanks for your response. I recently became familiar with this function myself. The outbound sorting feature is for handling containers after they are closed and leave the packing station. It basically enables an additional step that requires the worker to “Put” the container to a specific pallet while it awaits the move to the final shipping destination (Baydoor). A good example for using outbound sorting would be to organize your packages by carrier or carrier service type to keep them separated (e.g. prevent packages meant for UPS from ending up on a pallet of packages picked up by FedEx Ground). This is only one of numerous ways you can organize (sort) them. You could also sort by container type, ship date, etc. and it’s a good feature to be aware of but it wouldn’t apply to pre-pack steps in my case.

Thanks again,

Jason

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Alina Lica on at

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Hi Jason,

I think the described scenario does not work in your case because the Pack form is bringing data based on closed work lines having the last Put line for the selected Pack location.

What if you define a Sales work template with 4 steps, first Put is to the Stage location, and then users can override the last Put location with their Packing location ?

Take a look at table WHSTmpPackingLine, here you can see how the Pack form is populated.

Thanks,

Alina

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Jason1 75 on at

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Hi Alina,

That would probably work with single shipment picks but from prior testing I was not able to override the put location of clustered picks. It doesn't seem to be an option on the mobile device like it is with a single shipment pick for some reason.

Also. I tried leaving the final put location blank on the work template but then you can't add it to a cluster (using cluster pick create). It says "putting to blank locations is not supported".

It seems my only option is to stick with the the usual put to "Pack-01" (setup only 1 packing station in D365) and have every packer (regardless of which physical packing station they are actually working at) log in to "Pack-01" to perform containerization. I imagine sooner or later MS will add new functionality for this (I can't be the only one with such a need). This of course assumes we're not overlooking some existing option to do this.

Thanks again for your thoughts,

Jason

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ArturHesse 15 on at

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Hi Jason,

do you have the last solution operational?

Are there any issues with transaction at the pack form when more than one users are working at single packing station?

Thanks and best regards

Artur

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Jason1 75 on at

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Hi Artur,

My project recently resumed after being sidelined for a year. Funny timing for this inquiry – I just discussed this very issue yesterday with the WMS consultant. This is still current behavior. It is my understanding that there is no issue with multiple users logging in to the same ‘PACKING’ station and each worker separately containerizing any of the shipments they choose that have been picked and put there. We have not gone live yet but this is how we are planning to handle it for now.

If you are doing a single sales order pick you can override the final put location (e.g. PACK-01, PACK-02, etc.) and that will work. However, if you are doing a cluster pick you do not have the opportunity to override the final put location – it will require it to be put to the location specified on the work template. We were able to find a workaround to this by modifying the work template. They created a work ‘Stop’ after putting all picks to the ‘PACK-STAGE’ location with an additional work step that requires the pick to then be put to ‘PACK-01’ – which now can be overridden. Then another worker can later complete the last step of the sales order picking work and override that final put location to wherever they want. Having to always override the final put location as a matter of normal process is not optimal but it does allow you to put it to separate packing stations after it ‘rests’ at the initial PACK-STAGE location.

The biggest takeaway is that upon the completion any type of pick, that final put destination is the only place it can be packed at. If you move a shipment to a different PACK location afterwards (e.g., via an inventory move) the shipment will not show as visible within the packing station screen - despite the inventory showing as physically being there when looking at ‘inventory by location’.

One additional thought I had but haven’t explored is whether it is possible to create multiple mobile menu options for picking that use separate predetermined final put locations. Again, not even sure if that is possible to configure but thought I’d mention the idea. Please share anything learn that might be of use. I figure we will start out working from the shared PACKING location within the system and modify later if/when functionality changes - or if someone has another approach we aren’t aware of.

Hope this helps,
Jason

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ArturHesse 15 on at

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Hi Jason,

each of your paragraphs is very helpful. Thank you!
[quote user="Jason1"]My project recently resumed after being sidelined for a year. Funny timing for this inquiry – I just discussed this very issue yesterday with the WMS consultant. This is still current behavior. It is my understanding that there is no issue with multiple users logging in to the same ‘PACKING’ station and each worker separately containerizing any of the shipments they choose that have been picked and put there. We have not gone live yet but this is how we are planning to handle it for now.[/quote]
We are still live with two legal entities. We do cluster-picking but without D365 cluster picking functionality. This mean that the warehouse workers place the products on the trolley, but confirm the destination as "PACK_1" etc. One trolley is always connect to one "PACKING"-Station. We have a bad workload balancing with six "PACKING" stations for the high phase.

[quote user="Jason1"]If you are doing a single sales order pick you can override the final put location (e.g. PACK-01, PACK-02, etc.) and that will work. However, if you are doing a cluster pick you do not have the opportunity to override the final put location – it will require it to be put to the location specified on the work template. We were able to find a workaround to this by modifying the work template. They created a work ‘Stop’ after putting all picks to the ‘PACK-STAGE’ location with an additional work step that requires the pick to then be put to ‘PACK-01’ – which now can be overridden. Then another worker can later complete the last step of the sales order picking work and override that final put location to wherever they want. Having to always override the final put location as a matter of normal process is not optimal but it does allow you to put it to separate packing stations after it ‘rests’ at the initial PACK-STAGE location.[/quote]
Two-level picking does not bring any benefits for us. We are going to use a single "PACKING"-Location. We are already using a custom version of the new feature "Small Package Shipping". So we have small challenge to route the shipping label to the correct "PACKING"-Station or rather label printer. This will be solved by a customization.

[quote user="Jason1"]The biggest takeaway is that upon the completion any type of pick, that final put destination is the only place it can be packed at. If you move a shipment to a different PACK location afterwards (e.g., via an inventory move) the shipment will not show as visible within the packing station screen - despite the inventory showing as physically being there when looking at ‘inventory by location’.[/quote]
Thank you for this hint. We have wondered about unconfirmed shipments. We sometimes use inventory movements from PACK-Location to Waiting-Location.

Best regards

Artur

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Jason1 75 on at

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Hi Artur,

Thanks for the feedback. You pointed out something we hadn’t considered since we haven’t implemented the ‘Small Parcel Shipping’ functionality yet – when using a single ‘shared’ packing station how do we divert the shipping labels to the correct packing station printer. How is your customization addressing this and does it also solve the same problem with printing the container contents/packing list reports?

Also, I’m assuming your referring to using the built in D365 Small Parcel Shipping feature? If so, which third party rating engine are you using with it?

Thanks,
Jason

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ArturHesse 15 on at

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Hi Jason,

the current solution was created before my time in the project. This solution isn't base on any D365 framework for TMS rating engines. A self created application (middleware with userfriendly frontend) is connect to two german carriers. The document routing was extended with a new type which is called "label". The connection is ensured via the location (also a new field in document routing).

Now we are going to extend the pack form by a new field "document routing". The warehouse worker has to select the packing station by the correct document routing record. With releasing of "Small Parcel Shipping" there might be a better solution. As they say, never change a running system.

It doesn't solve the problem with content/packing list reports. No document is required in the parcel.

Thanks,

Artur

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Jason1 75 on at

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Hi Artur,

Great feedback, Thanks again,

Jason

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